The story’s familiar: The EPA issues consent decrees to a municipality for sanitary and combined sewer overflows, forcing rehabilitation of existing underground infrastructure to protect the public and environment from raw sewage spills. The city of Columbus, Ohio, is no exception.
In a concerted effort among many midwestern state EPAs to reduce increasing water pollution and residential backup complaints, Ohio EPA issued Columbus two consent decrees were in 2002 and 2004, for SSOs and CSOs, respectively. This became a catalyst for the city to develop a wet weather management plan in 2005.This plan included plant upgrades, construction of relief pipes/tunnels, pipe
